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Ideas

noodlepoet

Haven’t written as much the last couple weeks and my brain is rebelling, persistently shoving ideas to the surface like a game of Whack-a-Mole. Zine ideas. Revisions for the accidental novella. POEMS. Plot notes for the two (!) new (!) longer-than-I-have-the-discipline-for stories. One came to me in a dream, one was a FINISHED. SHORT. STORY. that betrayed me the second I tried to tweak the ending. Did I mention zine ideas? Let’s mention them again, because they’re multiplying like bunnies. You spend half your writing life asking “Where do ideas come from?” and the other half painfully aware of the … Continue reading Ideas

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Music for Writers

noodlepoet

We all know music influences your mood. It can even be a shortcut to the mood you want, so I have a playlist for just about every state of mind I could need to access on any given day. Energizing playlists for cleaning and working out; road trip playlists carefully curated to keep me peppy but not too hyped on long drives; a Calm Down playlist for when my anxiety spikes (also essential for road trips); a slightly different mellow playlist to help me sleep when I’m restless; and, since it’s that time of year, a winter/Christmas playlist to keep … Continue reading Music for Writers

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How Not to Support a Writer

noodlepoet

A partner once asked me why I never shared my writing with him. “I’ve shown you stories,” I reminded him. “The ones I won that award for.” “Everybody saw those,” he said, dismissing them. I don’t think he’d bothered to read the stories, because that wasn’t the point of this exercise. What mattered to him—what threatened him—was that I had an inner life, one I didn’t share with him. If he truly mattered more than everybody else, I needed to prove it by sharing something unfinished, something no one else had seen. I never caved to that pressure, but that … Continue reading How Not to Support a Writer

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How did your NANOWRIMO go?

TheeWriter

So November is officially over and for those of you who were working diligently on your novels I commend you! Trying to write an entire 50,000 word novel in a single month is daunting but it is also a great exercise in just doing it. Often, I feel that my stories suffer from the dreaded belief that it’s never going to be right. The story in my mind is this big shiny thing- it’s absolutely perfect and what ends up on the page is never quite what I was striving for. So, I re-write it and re-write it and erase … Continue reading How did your NANOWRIMO go?

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November is National Novel Writing Month

noodlepoet

It’s a big job, writing a novel, but NaNoWriMo turns a daunting ambition into a celebration, hundreds of thousands of writers coming together to cheer each other on through this mad dash at creation. 50,000 words. 30 days. It’s absolutely doable. Except, my head would explode if I started something new right now. Between seasonal depression and holiday angst, I feel like I’d be setting myself up for failure. But maybe that’s a good reason to try a little harder this month. Not having a new project to embark on or any hope of writing 50,000 words of anything before November … Continue reading November is National Novel Writing Month

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Everything is ok–Nothing

TheeWriter

I wrote  a little story for Halloween- let me know what you think..   I don’t remember how I got here. I was sitting at my desk at work, typing a report, half zoned out from boredom and exhaustion; a product of not sleeping well the night before. My report was due at the end of the week and I knew it was important but somehow I couldn’t make myself care. My eyes glazed over and I could feel that little jump; my head bobbing as I fought off sleep. The screen grew fuzzy. The words lost meaning between my … Continue reading Everything is ok–Nothing

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‘Tis the Season to Be Creeped Out

noodlepoet

I’m a chicken. But I’m a chicken who loves a theme, so every October I steel my nerves and look for scary reads. Most years I gravitate toward the classics, safely familiar stories like Dracula, Carmilla, or Frankenstein, because I like the trappings of horror without the actual being afraid part. And last October when we challenged each other to write horror stories, I kept mine pretty tame, because I wasn’t quite in the mood to scare myself. This year feels different. So for the next two weeks I’ll be reading more horror and more about horror, trying to figure out what … Continue reading ‘Tis the Season to Be Creeped Out

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Writing to Deadlines

TheeWriter

Hello Creative Writer, The topic I’d like to discuss briefly this week is working to a deadline. We are all writers here so we can be honest, like artists, we can be temperamental. Writing might slow or stale if inspiration doesn’t come or when other life concerns are more pressing. But what do you do when you have a deadline? Whether it’s a paper you must right for your Psychology class or a report at work that needs to be turned in by a certain time, some writing can’t wait for the muses to smile. I abhor deadlines but if … Continue reading Writing to Deadlines

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The Writing Community

noodlepoet

Been a quiet fall so far. I’ve been itching for chats with our writing group but there aren’t many of us at the moment. In lieu of meetings I’ve been sampling writing podcasts and reading every article on writing that crosses my path. It’s not the same, but I’m learning a lot. The internet is the best thing to ever happen to writers. When we formed this group last October, Twitter had for years been my substitute for a writing group. I’d followed a few writers so I’d know when they published new books or stories, and suddenly my feed … Continue reading The Writing Community